When I went outside on memorial day, I was planning on doing a few routine maintenance tasks, i.e. prune some shrubs, prune the pentas ...
I heard some hacking noise and discovered my neighbour hacking away at the lillikoi that had been suffocating his crepe myrtle trees. I guess we're even now, because he let his bougainvilleas and mandevilla vines grow over the fence and completely engulf the whole corner, including a Christmas palm. The bougainvillea is much tougher to deal with than the passion fruit since it has hard woody canes armed with nasty spikes.
After he was done, I took out my pruning gear and hacked away the last few shoots growing over the fence. I didn't have the heart to remove all the shoots that are now creating a rather nice looking ground cover, but I sort of realize I might be sorry later when it tries to take over the rest of the yard ! I also left the thick growth that is now covering the bottom part of the travellers palm. I did however cut off the shoots that are now trying to suffocate the strawberry guava and the ones reaching for the sugar apple.
So far, not s single fruit in sight. This is very disappointing. Now I have this beautiful vine, taking over most of the back fence, with beautiful blooms and the promise of great tasting fruit, but nothing !
This vine is CRAZY!!! I'm a vine fan, but tend to keep them cut back. I have a Lady Margaret passion vine that's been a victim of the caterpillars this season. I don't think mine has edible fruit either. I hope yours produces fruite for you soon!
ReplyDeleteI read that the lillikoi is aggressive and will smother anything withing reach, but I didn't really believe it. I now do.
ReplyDeleteIt is a very pretty vine and the flowers are also beautiful. Right now its overgrowing a large empty bare spot on the ground, so for now it will serve two purposes, 1. hide the ugly fence at the back, 2. cover the empty ground that is a weed bed if left unattended.